Heavy rains have claimed the lives of four people in Durban and surrounding areas.

The deluge caused localised flooding‚ with many rivers breaking their banks on Sunday.

The police’s Search and Rescue Unit has responded to four storm-related incidents since rain began to fall on Sunday night.

One of the first recorded casualties was Ntlanhla Mpako‚ 23‚ who had been with a friend when heavy rains delayed them near the Hare Krishna temple in Chatsworth. He and a friend were accosted by a group of four men‚ one of whom had a gun and fired a shot.

The pair fled and tried to cross an area with gushing water. Mpako slipped and fell into the water and was washed into an open drain.

Specialised divers on Monday began a rescue mission‚ but were hampered in their search of the maze of storm-water drains by fast-flowing water.

In the early hours of Monday morning‚ divers and lifeguards pulled the body of a 24-year-old man from the surf off Durban’s North Beach.

Later‚ members of the unit responded to different areas in Molweni in the city’s western reaches. The body of an elderly woman‚ thought to have been swept away while trying to cross a river in flood‚ was pulled from the muddy water.

Nearby‚ a 45-year-old man had been crossing a low level bridge over the Umgeni River when he slipped and fell into the water on the upstream side of the bridge. He was sucked below the surface into a pipe. Divers were unable to enter the river. The rescue team will return when the water level has subsided to continue with their effort.